SCRATCH to R: Toward an Inclusive Pedagogy in Teaching Coding
Tuesday, January 17th, 20234:00 pm – 4:30 pm ET
[cid:bb40f6f7-d48e-41ce-a2be-d74655d0068f]
Presented by: Shu-Min Liao (Amherst College)
Abstract: This month, in the CAUSE (Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate
Statistics Education) / JSDSE (Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education) webinar
series, we highlight the research article, SCRATCH to R: Toward an Inclusive Pedagogy in
Teaching Coding. In the webinar, Shu-Min Liao will introduce SCRATCH, a kid-friendly
visual programming language developed by the Media Lab at MIT. SCRATCH was designed to
introduce programming to children and teens in a “more thinkable, more meaningful, and
more social” way. Although it was initially intended for K-12 students, educators have
used it for higher education as well, and found it particularly helpful for those who
haven’t had the privilege of learning coding before college. In this presentation, Dr.
Liao will discuss using SCRATCH as a gateway to learning R in introductory or intermediate
statistics courses. She will explain the design of her current project and share
observations from a pilot study in a liberal arts college with 39 students who had diverse
coding experiences. She found that the most disadvantaged students were not those with no
coding experience, but those with poor prior coding experience or with low coding
self-efficacy. This innovative SCRATCH-to-R approach also offers instructors a pathway
toward an inclusive pedagogy in teaching coding.
Article:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26939169.2022.2090467<https…
The webinar is free but pre-registration is required: please sign up at:
https://www.causeweb.org/cause/webinar/jsdse/2022-10<https://nam10.safel…